Richard Whittall:

The Globalist's Top Ten Books in 2016: The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer

Middle East Eye: "

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer is one of the weightiest, most revelatory, original and important books written about sport"

“The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer has helped me immensely with great information and perspective.”

Bob Bradley, former US and Egyptian national coach: "James Dorsey’s The Turbulent World of Middle Eastern Soccer (has) become a reference point for those seeking the latest information as well as looking at the broader picture."

Alon Raab in The International Journal of the History of Sport: “Dorsey’s blog is a goldmine of information.”

Play the Game: "Your expertise is clearly superior when it comes to Middle Eastern soccer."

Andrew Das, The New York Times soccer blog Goal: "No one is better at this kind of work than James Dorsey"

David Zirin, Sports Illustrated: "Essential Reading"

Change FIFA: "A fantastic new blog'

Richard Whitall of A More Splendid Life:

"James combines his intimate knowledge of the region with a great passion for soccer"

Christopher Ahl, Play the Game: "An excellent Middle East Football blog"

James Corbett, Inside World Football

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Trade union call for a freeze on kafala puts Qatar to the test

Qatar’s response to a call by international trade unions to freeze
its controversial sponsorship system for foreign workers injured in a gas leak
and separate gas explosion is likely indicate the Gulf state’s willingness to
reform or abolish a scheme that critics denounce as a form of modern slavery
and Qataris see as a protective wall against loss of control of their country.

Qatar has been fighting an uphill battle to limit
substantial damage to its reputation in the wake of its winning in 2010 of the
right to host the 2022 World Cup as a result of criticism of the working and
living conditions of its foreign workers. The number of foreign workers, already
a majority of the tiny state’s population, is expected to rise substantially as
construction of World Cup-related infrastructure kicks into high gear.

Qatar has responded to the criticism, fuelled by reports of
annually hundreds of deaths of predominantly Asian workers allegedly as a
result of working conditions, by issuing improved safety, security and welfare
standards, and pledging to step up enforcement of existing rules and
regulations.

The moves are designed to protect Qatar’s projection of
itself as a cutting edge 21st century nation, fight off calls that
it be deprived of its right to hold the world’s foremost sports tournament, and
fend off demands that it dismantle its controversial sponsorship or kafala
system that subjects workers to the whims of their employers, and allow labour
to freely organize and engage in collective bargaining.

In a statement, the International Trade Union Confederation
(ITUC), one of Qatar’s harshest critics, asked the Qatari labour ministry to
grant amnesty from the kafala system to dozens of people injured last week in a
gas leak at a chemical plant and 35 others wounded in a separate gas explosion
at a restaurant that killed at least 12 people. It also asked the ministry to
support potential damage claims.

“Migrant workers are trapped in Qatar under the strict
kafala system…. Injured workers face being stuck there without being able to
work, without pay, in a country where your employer owns you, sharing a room
with ten grown men recuperating from injuries. We are appealing to the Qatari
Government to grant a kafala amnesty to injured workers giving them the choice
to change employers, or to leave the country with their end of service benefit,”
the statement quoted ITUC general secretary Sharan Burrow.

Workers require their sponsor’s permission to seek
alternative employment or leave the country under the kafala system.

In response to a question, ITUC spokeswoman Gemma Swart confirmed
that the statement was intended to test Qatari intentions of how far it is
willing to go in addressing concerns about living and working conditions of
foreign workers as well as the legal and political environment in which they
operate.

The ITUC’s challenge comes as world soccer body FIFA gears
up for an executive committee meeting in which the issue of Qatari labour will
feature prominently on the agenda. FIFA executive Theo Zwanziger told the
European parliament last month that the Qatari labour controversy had increased
the importance of factoring human rights into future awarding of World Cup
hosting rights.

Striking a more positive note towards Qatar, FIFA vice
president Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein told Inside World Football that labour had
become “the crucial issue” but that Qatar could resolve it “if they set their
minds to it… Maybe they feel sometimes a little bit guarded because of what
they perceive as the level of attention,” Prince Ali said.

Embracing the ITUC’s call on the grounds of compassion would
earn Qatar significant brownie points in a crucial battle in which it has found
itself continuously on the defensive. The odds however are

Those risks include becoming more vulnerable to international
pressure to abolish the kafala system and domestic criticism from a significant
segment of society that sees sponsorship as one way for Qataris, who account
for at most 15 percent of the population, to retain control of their state,
society and culture. It would also be seen as an indication that Qatar may be
willing to entertain significant reform if not abolition of the kafala system –
something it has so far refused.

By the same token, Qatar risks that workers effected by last
week’s incident get caught up in the restrictions of the system, which would
further damage its reputation.

The labour controversy puts Qatar in a Catch-22. It undermines
achievement of a key goal of the Gulf state’s heavy investment in sports,
including the World Cup: the development of the kind of soft power that would
compensate for the absence of the hard military power to defend itself. That
soft power is dependent on its ability to embed itself at multiple levels in
the international community.

Yet its public image has been tainted by the labour controversy.
Reversing that involves existential and painful decisions that go to the very
nature of society. Granting political rights and greater freedoms to workers
and other foreigners would significantly alter the character of a state in
which nationals are a small minority.

The labour issues raises for Qataris existential issues for
which there is no immediate politically feasible solution. Like other smaller
Gulf states where nationals constitute a minority, Qatar has long grappled
inconclusively with how to address the problem.

However in contrast to other Gulf states, Qatar has become
the battleground because of its hosting of the World Cup which gave leverage to
trade unions with real clout – 175 million members in 15 countries – as opposed
to human rights groups that have long criticized the Gulf’s foreign worker
region but have predominantly moral authority.

Qatar may take comfort in the fact that it may not be alone
in the frontline for long. Dubai has potentially put itself in the same league
with its winning of the hosting of the 2020 World Expo. The expo may not evoke
the kind of passion the World Cup does but Dubai, always seeking the limelight,
will likely be unable to avoid the kind of scrutiny Qatar is already being
subjected to.

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological
University. He is also co-director of the University of Würzburg’s Institute
for Fan Culture, and the author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer blog and a forthcoming book with the same
title.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Sporticos

Ads

Soccer Results

The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer does not promote, link to or provide videos from any online sources who distribute illegal streaming content over the Internet with domains registered in the United States of America

Top 100 Soccer Sites

Subscribe To

Subscribe by Email

About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile